Though the Baroque trend is well established in the Versailles interiors, generally speaking it was regulated in France by an underlying restraint that seldom permitted decoration or movement to dominate entirely. Besides the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles, the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre is an example of magnificence in decoration. The vastness of these rooms and the lavish use of marble, plasterwork, and painted ceilings (with the addition at Versailles of mirror glass panels) created an effect of overwhelming grandeur.
Among the architects and artists working at this time were Jean Berain, André-Charles Boulle, Jean le Paultre, Robert de Cotte, and Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Their work continued in the later period in which Baroque ornament was transformed into the airy, delicate Rococo of the mid-18th century. The beginning of this more fluent treatment can be seen in the work of Robert de Cotte at Versailles and the Hôtel de Toulouse, Paris. An immense variety of materials was used for the inlaid and decorated furniture; in a piece by Boulle, for instance, the designer employed—in addition to the tortoise-shell and brass inlay—ebony, copper, lapis lazuli, green-stained ivory or horn, and mother-of-pearl.
Despite its freedom from onerous restrictions, the Baroque style had preserved the classical idea of symmetry. Not until the early decades of the 18th century were there marked departures from the notion that an object divided vertically should consist of two halves that are mirror images of each other. The Louis XIV style embodied a passion for symmetry, but with the Regency of the duc d’Orléans, which began in 1715, asymmetry became one of the features of contemporary decoration and one of the major aspects of the Rococo style. The principal designer in this style, who was largely responsible for its development, was Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, a goldsmith and ornemeniste. It is no accident that many objects in Rococo style, including furniture, look as though they had been designed by a metalworker. It has been said that Rococo began when the scrolls stopped being symmetrical. The influences that brought about this revolutionary concept are worthy of consideration.
Beginning in the early decades of the 17th century, Chinese porcelain and lacquer were imported into Europe in ever-increasing quantities. Porcelain, especially, attracted many distinguished collectors, including most of the royalty of Europe. This increasing use of Chinese art objects in European decorative art provided a powerful influence with no trace of classical tradition. Soon after 1650 the Dutch began to import porcelain from Japan, at first decorated in blue, but toward the end of the century in polychrome, painted either by, or in the manner of, Sakaida Kakiemon. This was widely sought, and even more highly valued than Chinese porcelain. When Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, bought a palace early in the 18th century to house his collection, for instance, he called it the Japanische Palais, and in France Louis-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc de Bourbon, established a factory at Chantilly to imitate Japanese porcelain. The decorations of Kakiemon were markedly asymmetrical, as were the painted lacquer panels that were imported to be made into screens and furniture, and there seems no doubt that this feature also influenced European Rococo art.
Kakiemon dishKakiemon dish, porcelain with cobalt blue underglaze and overglaze enamel decoration, Japan, 18th century; in the Brooklyn Museum, New York.Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Designated Purchase Fund, 75.127.1
Despite the quantities in which it was imported, the demand for Oriental porcelain could not be satisfied, and European potters sought desperately to discover the secret. The first factory to make porcelain in the Oriental manner was at Meissen in Saxony, patronized by Augustus the Strong, but soon many small factories began to spring up in Germany, Austria, and Italy. France had several factories making a modified type of porcelain, the most important being the Sèvres factory, owned by Louis XV and patronized by his mistress, Mme de Pompadour. The first English factory, at Chelsea, was established as late as 1745. Porcelain was probably the most important expression of the Rococo style in the first half of the 18th century, with bronze and goldsmiths’ work closely following in second place; indeed, this period might well be called the age of porcelain. Rooms entirely decorated with porcelain still exist. These included not only vases and figures, but also mirror-frames, scrollwork, cornices, and even small console tables. A very fine example still survives at the Palazzo di Capodimonte (Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte) in Naples.
The French style developed, in the 18th century, into a very skillful synthesis of materials in which bronze and porcelain played an important part. Furniture was elaborately mounted in bronze with a marble top and was often decorated with porcelain plaques, as well. Clocks were made from porcelain vases. Jardinieres and vases were filled with porcelain flowers with bronze stalks and leaves. Veneering with rare woods reached its height, and decorative marquetry, often elaborately pictorial, was practiced. Much sought at this time was the marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell, which began with Boulle, although it was a revival of an Imperial Roman fashion. Tapestries covered the walls when these were not decorated with carved wood-panelling known as boiserie. Another form of wall-decoration, also employed in the making of furniture, was vernis Martin (Martin’s varnish), an imitation of Oriental lacquer that was extremely popular after 1730. The large salon de reception of the 17th century gave place to smaller, more intimate rooms, and more of them, and the furniture and decoration of the period are also on a smaller scale.
Boudoir in the Louis XV style, 1740–60; mixed-media model by the workshop of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, c. 1930–40; in the Art Institute of Chicago.Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, 1941.1206/Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago
The Rococo style is remarkable for its flowers and its curves. Furniture legs were gracefully curved, and tops were cut into serpentine shapes. It is easy to see when the Rococo style ends, because chair legs at once become straight.
Typical Rococo features are seen in the interiors of the architect and decorator Germain Boffrand for the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris (begun 1732), where architectural form has been subordinated to the demands of the decoration; the cornice has disappeared, and walls curve into the ceiling, appliquéd with ragged C scrolls, garlands of flowers decked with ribbons, sprays of foliage, trellising, and shell motifs. The reduced scale of rooms and the reaction from monumental design result in elimination of the classical orders. Relatively small painted panels, idealizing peasant life, were enclosed in flattened moldings, silvered or gilt; pastel-coloured backgrounds prevented the smaller size of the salons from becoming too evident. The use of Chinese motifs typifies the search for novelty and blends well with the general lightness of style. The Cabinet de la Pendule (Room of the Clock) at Versailles (1738), designed by J. Verberckst, is another excellent example of French Rococo interior design. Gilles-Marie Oppenordt and François de Cuvilliés also were distinguished designers who worked with the best artists and craftsmen of the time.